A Little Bragging

There's a lot on this old blog about my kids and how fabulous I think they are. But I don't want to skip over Husband and how he is pretty great too. Yesterday was his big work event that he plans all year. He was joking around in the morning before he left because I wanted to take a picture of him in his special shirt. 

He checked in a few times during the day to keep me updated on how it was all going. Apparently, it went just fine. So that's good. When he comes home from the food show that's when my job really begins since the smell of fry oil is overwhelming. So I soak his clothes and immediately get the washing machine going. 

The ground beef I had on hand for tacos hadn't thawed hardly at all, I should have pulled it out earlier I guess. So we decided to go out to dinner to celebrate the end of the food show! 

I swear our kids came too but I just didn't take a picture of them. We had a really nice dinner out, chatting and enjoying each other's company and we even celebrated with a milkshake. We rarely get dessert when we go out so this was a special treat!

I took this picture off of the Facebook page of the restaurant.

I have always wanted to try their s'mores shake and it did not disappoint. I was honestly a little sad we all shared it because it was so good. We will almost certainly get one again. It was a delicious end to a good day for Husband! 

A Weekend Recap

Is it really even a Monday is the blog-o-verse isn't chock-full of weekend recap posts? Yeah, let me just add mine to the pile then.

We had a good weekend ultimately.

M and I went to "Bundled Up Saturday" at the soccer field. Her team did well but she did not score this week.

But the sun was shining which did make all the difference in our spirits. It was still cold and windy though. 

After we got home we were all a little hangry, so we went out for a late lunch at Texas Roadhouse. Our kids have never ever been there. It wasn't actually our original plan but where we were planning to go changed the set up so it was ordering at a counter and they didn't even have what we wanted on the menu anymore. 

Anyway, after fresh rolls with honey butter and some steak, we were all in much better moods. Which is good because we had a big party to go to Saturday night. 

We went to Fr. Nicholas' birthday party! Fr. Nicholas was assigned to our parish as the school priest this past school year and he really bonded with C. He is such a Holy man and we were all sad when he was reassigned to a parish in the next town beginning in July. But C was devastated. He cried and cried when he found out and even still misses him often and speaks about him. 

It needs to be said that we LOVE our newly assigned priest too and he is also a wonderful Holy man but we haven't formed the same bond with him yet. 

Anyway, we were delighted to be invited to his birthday party a friend threw for him and the kids were SO happy. 

Yesterday was just a regular one for us but that's okay. 

Here We Go Again

Hello, cold Fall. I didn't actually miss you much at all. I much prefer 65 degrees Fall. But here you are.

I bought a new furnace filter so if I do actually give in a turn that on we are ready for it. Tomorrow our soccer league has deemed the day Bundled Up Saturday because it's going to be right around freezing during the games. But thems the breaks.

Yesterday it was a gloomy-looking sort of day, and there was a misty drizzle for a lot of it. But it was still warm and that was welcomed.

I had the kids again and we had a lot of fun. We went to the garden center to play in the corn box and they were big fans!

So, like Elsa says, let the storm* rage on, the cold never bothered me anyway. Thankfully I had dug the mittens out already so the backpacks are stocked for recess needs. 

*Only like this is perfectly normal, not record-setting like January and it's going to be fine even if it is disappointing since it was so nice yesterday. I am super thankful we aren't supposed to see snow this weekend like some people are. 

End of An Era

Earlier this week, M received her final book from Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

Dolly's incredible program sends children a book once a month from birth until age 5! Promoting literacy and education in a simple and convenient way. While my children are blessed enough to have a book lover for a mother, and these books are just another part of their book collections, not all kids are so lucky and that's where Dolly comes in. 

While my heart breaks just a little that she turns 5! this month and our mailbox will no longer have a book arriving every month, I am so thankful for the years we received books and we will cherish some of the fantastic stories we have been introduced to over the years.

A Weekend Away

We had a wonderful weekend away visiting family. M's soccer game was canceled due to rain. (Everything's flooded again... 2019 has been wet!) We stopped for a lunch at McDonald's and they had a pretty nice playplace actually. They also had coloring sheets. It was kind of a really nice McDonald's. 

Anyway, we got there and we finally got to meet this nugget. This is my nephew B. 

The kids got right to work helping sorting and bagging apples. 

Sunday's weather was better and after Mass we got to meet Schnitzel the dog. (Which C declares as his favorite part of the weekend.)

He also found a woolly bear caterpillar and he thought that was good too. 

I got a picture of all the cousins. These are all they've got. Both of their other side's aunts and uncles are childless so it's good to get the crew together. All the kids are looking/smiling and when you add an infant in the mix that's pretty impressive to get this one. 

We are happy to have a family orchard to go home to every fall. 

This kid also likes not being the only boy now. 

Now we are back to Monday with a good week ahead. 

Preschool Playdate

Yesterday was my day with the Three Musketeers. They are learning about the letter C this week at school so I wanted to extend the fun! It was like my old school preschool days with C. Our house is smaller than the other kids so if I don't schedule stuff out they run amuck which I regret due to the mess.

From 11:00-11:30 they had free playtime. This is the exact right amount of time, minimal fighting and mess!

11:30-11:50 We made a corn craft!  It's basically a simple fine motor activity but we just listened to music and chatted. It was fun.

And hey, corn starts with C!

From 11:55-12:15 We had some gross motor time and they did Cosmic Kids Yoga. Cracker the Dragon. Well, I made lunch. They did yoga. 

12:15-12:30 They ate their C lunch! Chicken nuggets, Cheetos, Carrots and Chocolate Milk. 

12:30-1:00 They played Cloud Dough. They loved it. Seriously, any sensory activity works for this age. We did water beads last time. I will have to plan something awesome for next week!

1:00-1:15 We worked on a Cat Craft! 

1:15-1:30 We had a cotton ball race. You use a straw to blow a cotton ball across the room. This activity went from fun to frustrating back to fun. 

Everyone got a Chocolate Coin as a prize no matter which place they were in. 

1:30-2:00 We played cool games. (This is a stretch for C but they like to play games and any time they have to take turns and practice sportsmanship is good for them!) We played Spot-It. M is getting so good at it. It's a real favorite here. 

We also played Shark Bite and then the kids got to play for just a while before we went back to school. 

It was a wonderful day!

Soccer!

Remember how the last two seasons M played soccer, for the most part, her team did poorly? Like they could go multiple games without ever scoring? Well, this season our Panthers have arrived!

(It makes sense since preschool soccer is ages 3-5 that when your team is mostly on the young side you aren't going to do as well as when they're on the older side of things.)

But we had a game on Saturday and it was so great. Our team played so well. And not in like one kid was dominating the whole game kind of way either. The blue team didn't ever score a point but we were in fact quite kind about that. Even going so far as to stand on the goal box line when it was their turn to start with the ball.

M scored twice! Again! This doesn't really look like but this is her scoring.

Breaking it down for you, the top arrow is pointing at M and the bottom arrow is pointing at the ball, going in the goal. 

She was pretty excited! 

Here she is on a breakaway!

Then with some time with me on the bench after her goal. 

I was so proud of our team, they passed the ball and scored well. They were able to get the ball out of packs of kids but not in a mean way. (If you have had littles playing soccer you know what I mean.) It was just really a great game.